Important Things To Consider Before Creating A Mobile App

As technology advances, there has been a steady rise of needs for more and more applications. In the post, I am going to point out and explain some of the factors one needs to consider before creating an app. It will go a long way to help you to evaluate an app developer or an app development company that will be ideal to go for while battling with this decision.

Several people or firms have had problems of either fixing or completing an app from an app developer that has failed to meet up with his own side of the bargain. This problems is entirely the fault of the person in charge of the project because he fails to consider some of the basic factors for choosing an app developer or a mobile app development company that can give him what he desire. There have been stories of clients spending a huge amount of money to create an app and at the end of the day, they end up being disappointed. One of the most important aspects in creating an app is to carefully put into consideration the company or developer that you are going to hire for your project.

First and foremost, you need to consider the source code ownership policy of the company that you are going to hire for the project. An easy way to do this is to be knowledgeable of their policy on who claims ownership the source code and the intellectual property of the app after it is completed. If they choose to claim ownership over the source code, just abandon them and look for another that will hand over the source code to you. There are several cases whereby a client will want to make changes or modify some content on an existing app; but the client cannot do that because the developer has claim ownership of the source code. To avoid this, you have to ensure that you are the sole owner of the source code as well as the intellectual property so that can modify your app anywhere without any trouble. And also ownership of the source code will make selling the app easier because there will be no conflict about who owns the app; you or the developer.

The second factor to consider is the technical capabilities of the developer; questions such as, the developer that I am looking up to, will he be able to complete my project? In searching for this answer, you have to consider that in creating a complex app, it may take a team of developers, some of which are IOS developer, Android developer, Backend developer, U/X designer, project architect and a project manager. Know that it is very difficult for one developer to complete an app singlehandedly. You have to hire other developers of different knowledge. You can also work with a team that comprises of all the disciplines required to build the app. The perfect situation is to get all the developers under one roof so that problems can be solved effectively and quickly.

The third factor to consider is to review the portfolio of the company or the developer. This can be done by downloading and testing their app. By doing this, you will develop some kind of assurance that what you see is what you are going to get.

The next step is to check their references. One thing you should do is to make a list of the answers to the following question by contacting them: do they have a good process of doing things? Did they offer quick and reliable answer to your questions? How was the communication? You have to check whether they were good in solving their recent problems; how was the quality of their work? How well were they able to solve issues? Another way to confirm their references is by checking whether they are a member of Better Business Bureau (BBB). If they are, it will be easy to handle disputes in case of any. If the company wants to remain the member of BBB, the company must settle their disputes with you.

Another factor to consider while handling your app project to the developers is the aspect of assurance. You may raise several questions like: what happens if your main developer gets involve in an accident and he is being hospitalized, what will happen to my pending project? The company will have something to backup these questions and will give some degree of assurance that they are going to meet up with that deadline no matter what happens. There were many cases whereby clients end up forfeiting their mobile app project just because the developers they hired could not meet beat the deadline.

When evaluating a developer for your app, ask them questions about their development process. Questions like when and how do you provide feedback on the status of the development progress? How are content changes handled? Do you have any project manager that works with your company? How do you handle communication? What type of tools do you use for the project management? How is your quality assurance handled? In evaluating all these questions, look for where you will be involved. What you will be avoiding is to hand over you project to a company and being of the process and after a few months, give you a piece of garbage as a complete project.

All the mobile operating system upgrades their platform ones a quarter. Unfortunately for you, the upgrade may affect your app negatively. So, in negotiating the term of service with your developer, you have to agreement on an upgrade and maintenance term. Your app should be always evolving.

Another factor is to ask a warranty in written form. But note that the warranty will be valid for as long as the operating system on which the app is developed is still valid. The developer will not be responsible for any problem that may arise due to the upgrade of the operating system. Meanwhile, this issue was dealt with in earlier chapters on the issue of upgrade and maintenance.

Finally is the pricing system. The aim is to get exactly what you pay for. There are many top Indian app developers in India that are very good and cost effective. Note that the price for creating a good app is usually high. If you come across a company that charges a pretty low price, they probably don’t understand the scope. But before doing away with them, you should give them an opportunity and review their template or process as it may give them some kind of backup for charging such amount.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Harnil Oza is a CEO of Hyperlink Infosystem, a mobile app development company having a team of best app developers India who delivers best mobile solutions mainly on Android and iOS platform. He regularly contributes his knowledge on the leading blogging sites.